The Australian Chamber Orchestra has added a rare early-17th-century treasure to its already impressive stable of historic instruments, with the ACO Instrument Fund acquiring a 1610 viola by the Brescian master Giovanni Paolo Maggini.

Believed to be one of only a handful of surviving tenor violas by Maggini, the instrument will be played by ACO Principal Viola Stefanie Farrands following an extensive international search to find the right match for the orchestra’s distinctive sound.

ACO Principal Viola Stefanie Farrands and the 1610 Maggini viola. Photo © Charlie Kinross

For Farrands, the arrival of the Maggini marks a transformative moment and the end of a five-year search got find a new instrument. 

“This was literally the last one I tried out and right away, from the first note, I knew this was the right one,” Farrands told Limelight. “It has an amazingly dark, rich sound and although it’s a little larger than the German viola I’ve been playing, it felt completely natural in my hands.”

Over the centuries, the instrument has passed through the hands of English violinist Henry Holmes and leading dealers W. E. Hill & Sons and the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company,...